Facts About Breast Cancer

Breast cancer – the most common cancer among women, excluding skin cancer – is the leading cause of cancer death in women between the ages of 40 and 55.

About 77 percent of women with a new diagnosis of breast cancer are over the age of 50.

One out of every eight women in the United States is at risk of developing breast cancer at some point in her lifetime, and 1 out of every 28 women is at risk of dying from breast cancer.

In women of all age groups, white women are more likely to develop breast cancer than African-American women. However, of all women younger than 45, African-American women are more likely to develop breast cancer than White women.

Low-income, African-American women are three times more likely to be diagnosed with advanced disease than high-income women.

Increased use of mammography has resulted in breast cancers being found earlier in their development when they are smaller and at less advanced stages.

In the 1940s, only 72 percent of women diagnosed with breast cancer survived for five years. Today, the five-year survival rate from localized breast cancer has increased to 97 percent.

After continuously increasing for more than two decades, female breast cancer incidence rates leveled off from 2001-2003.